Hundreds of Stockton, CA, USA smart meters explode from surge

A service truck ran into a power pole in Stockton, California, causing the higher power line with its higher voltage to fall down onto a lower line, sending a surge of electricity to thousands of customers. The surge caused hundreds of smart meters to explode, and it damaged many appliances that were plugged in, creating black burn marks on those outlets in the house.

I would guess that fuses were tripped in the service panels as well.

The main black eye goes to the smart meters blowing up.

I'm sure this is going to be sending reverberations through the utility community for years to come, to prevent something like this from happening again.

Will the power company be liable for the damages imposed to thousands of homes and the appliances they had plugged in? This smells like a major class action suit brewing, which hopefully will include the smart meter manufacturer(s).

: The utilities lied when they said “smart” or “AMI” meters would make the electricity grid “resilient” and “self-healing.”

: Nothing could be further from the truth, and this latest episode is more proof of the failure of “smart” meter programs everywhere.

: On Monday, hundreds of “smart” meters simultaneously exploded in Stockton, California, when a truck ran into a utility pole. Watch the video:

: CBS News reported that “neighbors in the South Stockton area described it as a large pop, a bomb going off, and strong enough to shake a house.”

: The catastrophic failure of these PG&E “smart” meters — which are not approved by Underwriters Laboratories (UL) — not only damaged meter bases and other homeowner property, but left those 5,800 customers without power.

: That’s right — whenever these plastic, unproven meters fail, they shut your power off, as shown in this Cambridge University research paper.

: Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gOqucXzwKkA

: gOqucXzwKkA

: Last July, the province of Saskatchewan ordered the removal of all 105,000 “smart” meters, following a rash of fires. Portland OR, Lakeland FL, Arizona and Ontario followed suit with mass removals.

: Analog meters are not susceptible to fires. The risk of fires is a “smart” new feature for all customers, brought to you by your PR-spinning utility. Back in 2011, after a similar power surge ignited 80 “smart” meters in Palo Alto, California, a spokesperson for The Utility Reform Network (TURN) stated:

:: “In the collective memory of TURN, we have not seen similar incidents with analog meters.”

: The total number of separate incidents of fires and explosions caused by “smart” meters is now very likely to exceed a thousand or more, although the true number is not known due do widespread coverups and denials by utilities.